PORTFOLIO

Last week at the Stubbs Alderton & Markiles Preccelerator Program, we started to unpack what should be contained in the ideal marketing tech stack for startups.

As part of our primer on the fundamentals of marketing technology, we sought first to define the essential elements of the marketing tech stack for startups. With Scott Brinker’s Technology Marketing Landscape infographic as our backdrop, we dove into everything from CRM, email and automation to SEO, paid search, content creation, social media and more, all in the context of why these technologies are critical to a business’ success, including which tools to use at what stages and for what specific sales/marketing objectives.

Here are a few of our key takeaways from the session:

While no two companies are likely to have the exact same set of marketing technologies, the commonalities are the same: any tool or technology that can help identify, engage, convert and retain customers while allowing you to maximize your marketing and sales efforts can broadly be defined as being part of the “martech stack.”

Having the right martech stack can better facilitate marketing and sales alignment. Connecting marketing qualified leads with sales enablement tools can boost conversions and optimize funnel activity, which in the long term generates more cost-effective marketing programs to facilitate sales.

“Outbound marketing” places the focus on selling to an audience you already have, such as sending email to your list, in which you can track opens, website visits and what was being visited that will allow you to score leads and determine which are worth pursuing.

“Inbound marketing” focuses more on creating and promoting persona-driven content that will be attractive the the appropriate audience. As prospective customers find your company, inbound marketing helps companies to automate the process of nurturing a prospect from a website visitor into a paying customer using workflows to scale automated conversion funnels.

As a marketer, you don’t know which tool is the right one to use unless you’ve actually used it. You can’t recommend or even have others execute something without trying it and mastering it yourself. Martech systems are easy to move in and out of for testing, and CMOs who aren’t also experimenting simply won’t survive.

In a few weeks, I will co-host the 10th Annual Digital Family Reunion, which celebrates the richly diverse community of technology professionals in Los Angeles. In honor of the occasion, I thought it was important to share some historical perspective on the technology community in Los Angeles, going back some 24 years.

It all began for me with a Wall Street Journal article by Jared Sandberg in 1993. His message about how hypertext markup language would soon bring the world together through images, sound and video across Internet’s World Wide Web stirred something in me that I will never forget and immediately caused me to turn all of my energy toward a career in digital marketing.

I was captivated by the potential the Web represented, and I knew if I wanted to capitalize on it professionally I needed to learn everything and meet everyone I could who knew anything about the Web, which led me to seek out others who were doing the same. My search led me to participate in several networking organizations, which over time became the foundation for the technology industry community we have here in Los Angeles today.

At the time, I was transitioning out of my entertainment PR account executive role under legendary Hollywood publicist Phil Paladino. When Phil became ill and the company ended, I got the chance to sell under Murphy O’Brien partner (and later X-Drive CEO) Brett O’Brien. But I wanted to get closer to the Web. With the help of Andy Nelson (not from LA), I landed a director of marketing and sales role at CD-ROM game developer Viridis Corp. I applied my communications background and a budding interest in sales and marketing there under Lee Barnes and Christopher Thompson.

To help put Viridis on the map in 1994 and connect my role there to the community that was making the transition from CD-ROM to the Web, we sponsored a meetup in the atrium of the Westwood Gateway building off the 405 and Santa Monica Blvd. I was so jazzed about the success of that event – I felt like I was part of something transformative, and the energy that was building around everyone’s shared desire to learn and collaborate was palpable. People were sharing business ideas, which led to investment, which led to jobs and the eventual spark of LA’s part in the dot-com boom.

My first exposure to LA’s tech community was at a local chapter meeting of the International Interactive Communications Society (IICS) in Hollywood. Through that community, I met Jeannine Parker, Joey Tamer, Sue Marrone and Hal Josephson, at that time the producer of Motorola’s Interactive Media Festival at Digital World. At about the same time I met Seth Shapiro (aka @Zebcom) – we would spend long hours on the phone discussing the technical inner workings of the Web and its potential in business. And there was Ben Mendelson, whose Learning Annex class about the World Wide Web turned into a long professional friendship.

Later I would find my now lifelong friends Joe Andrieu and Christian Gray at the Association of Internet Professionals (AIP), and soon thereafter met the true don of the digital media industry in Los Angeles, Jim Jonassen. Along with producer Molly Lavik, Jim’s LA New Media Roundtable (LAwNMoweR) events were the happening digital scene between 1994 and ‘97.

Jim and Co. would eventually parlay that momentum into the creation of the Digital Coast Roundtable, along with Mayor Richard Riordan, David Hankin, Rocky Delgadillo and others. Along with executive director Conchetta Fabares, the group created the Digital Coast moniker to brand the region from Santa Barbara to San Diego in hopes of attracting more investment from the Bay Area into the converging entertainment and technology industries (often referred to as Silliwood).

During those years I chaired the DCR’s Industry Relations Committee, which brought together community leaders from across the region to collaborate, share information and host a holiday networking party (not unlike the Digital Family Reunion model of today). Our biggest and most successful was in 1998, when Gary Baker of IBM helped us underwrite a huge gathering at the California Science Museum. Other IRC members at that time included the LA Venture Association, Internet Developers Association, Tech Coast Alliance and VIC – ah yes, VIC.

Brad Nye and Larry Roth started the Venice Interactive Community around a coffee table at the Firehouse Café in Venice in 1995. Along with Fran Pomerantz, Spence Bovee and Mariana Danilovic, I was among the founding board members of what would grow to become the biggest and most important social network in the converging technology, media and entertainment industries throughout the late ‘90s. Our monthly parties migrated to James Beach and the World Café before landing at the Victorian, where “VIC at the Victorian” became the place to see and be seen for anyone in tech (or as we said in those days, “interactive” or “digital media”). The VIC stories encompassed millions of dollars, thousands of participants, hundreds of deals, companies forged and fortunes created. .

That same year I co-founded InterActive Agency, Inc. (aka iAgency), the world’s first Internet PR firm and one of the first full-service interactive agencies. VIC is where I got my deal flow, feeding our 15-person team up until the dot-com crash. The relationships I made there continue to be invaluable. The stories around iAgency are too numerous to cite and the amazing clients too many to thank, but I would be remiss if I did not mention Stuart Halperin, Steve Katinsky and the team at Hollywood Online for writing the first check to iAgency, and Mark Jeffrey (The Palace), Jim Moloshok (Warner Bros. Online) and Steve Bradbury and Jeff Liebowitz (Engage Games Online) for believing in us early on.

It’s that spirt of networking and helping each other along that is at the heart of our character as a technology community in Los Angeles. Ask anyone who comes to Silicon Beach from New York or San Francisco and they will tell you the community here is generally more willing to take a meeting and network with one another to help facilitate the introductions and forge the relationships needed to advance our respective businesses and careers. I believe that attitude and culture in the LA tech community of today goes back to “the VIC days,” if not earlier.

And then the dot-com bust, ugh.

Again, hundreds of more stories to tell. DEN, PointCast, Pixelon (my personal) Pets.com, eToys — I could go on. Gone were the dot-com parties, IPOs, paper millionaires and jobs, not to mention some amazing technologies – poof! What followed in its wake, besides a dose of sound business fundamentals, was a dearth of community and networking. There was nothing going on in LA.

It was the summer of 2008, and young KurtyD parachuted into the industry and into our lives. He was making his own transition to tech, so I could relate to his enthusiasm and respect that he was having meetings with all the right people around town. He had also started his own curated networking group Meeting of the Minds (aka MOTM) to serve as a catalyst for his discovery of the industry.

We decided to meet for dinner with Brad Nye at Kate Mantilini in Woodland Hills. As we chatted about Web 2.0, social media and the younger generation of professionals that was breathing life back into tech in LA, an idea came to us – what if we hosted a party to connect our Web 1.0 community with this younger set? After all, we’re all connected, we’re all family – and thus the Digital Family Reunion was born. We needed a fiscal sponsor, which led us to David Leighton, CEO of Women in Technology International, who has managed the finances, registration and our Web presence over the years.

What happened on that December night in 2008 was nothing short of magical. The best part was that everywhere you looked around Ahmanson Hall at the Skirball Cultural Center, people could be seen greeting and embracing friends and colleagues they had not seen in years – they were beaming! It gave me such pleasure to know I had a hand in creating so much joy. But there was more to it. That familiarity, combined with the mingling of the two generations of tech workers — 800 of them — being introduced for the first time was electric. There was instant camaraderie and a sense of pay-it-forward mentality happening all over.

There were dozens of new exhibiting companies to see, senior executives to meet and high-profile speakers such as Jason Calacanis and Ryan Scott to learn from – and I got to present our first DFR Outstanding Achievement Honor to Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Add in the good vibes from DJ Loomer, visual stimulation from Annmarie and Chris Penny’s infinity mirror and a life-sized sculpture made up entirely of business cards from the 1990s, and it was one helluva good networking event. We have since turned it into an annual holiday tradition for LA’s tech industry, fueled by more than 50 community partner organizations who promote it to their members.

Over the past decade, LA’s technology industry and related social scene has exploded. In recent years, Thursday Nights connected entrepreneur CEOs with the venture community while giving back to the Girls and Boys Club of Santa Monica. Ken Rutkowski’s METal group started in 2000 and continues to thrive. Kevin Winston has dominated the scene in recent years with Digital LA and Silicon Beach Fest. Rachel Horning and Zach Sekar’s Startups in the Sky is rallying around the vibrant tech community in DTLA. Along with my pals KW Low and Nicole Jordan, we host a few LA AdTech meetups and educational panels each year. Kudos to Susan Franceschini of ThinkLA for truly serving the advertising and marketing community across the region. Alon Goren and Gary Livingston’s 805 Startups has rallied the community where I live in the Conejo Valley. Ash Kumra’s YOUNGRY is inspiring young entrepreneurs in Orange County and elsewhere. Stephen Meade pulls together a consistently high quality and eclectic crowd for the Beverly Hills Breakfast Club. The Tech Council of Southern California, now part of SIIA, is rebooting under the direction of Rhianna Collier and Jenn Carl. Mark Jeffrey and Ken Brook created Crypto Beach to address the burgeoning blockchain community. And newcomer Built In LA is on the rise with its publishing and events model catering to hiring companies.

Incubators and accelerators are also creating community. I’ve been especially impressed by Heidi Hubbeling and the team at Stubbs, Alderton and Markiles’ Preccelerator Program, were I’m currently a mentor. Paul Bricault and Oded Noy have done phenomenally well with the Amplify.la community. And LA’s original incubator, Idealab, has been going strong since 1996.

There are at least 100 other local networking organizations and professional associations actively giving professionals a place to connect and thrive in and around LA tech. I have tremendous respect for what their leaders have done to foster the growth of our community and I know firsthand that it is quite literally the lifeblood of our industry.

Community is everywhere, and it’s what you make of it. Whether you start your own meetup or simply show up at one that interests you, one cannot help but to be thrust in the path of opportunity. The tech community in LA has fed the growth of my career and has been the foundation of countless industry friendships and connections, for which I will be forever grateful.

I’m proud that our DFR meetup in 2008 was special enough to become an annual holiday event. I don’t take our strong community for granted, and I hope others will appreciate the importance of being in the room on Wed. Dec. 6 in DTLA to celebrate what we’ve created together and envision what we can do over the next 10 to 20 years. Whether or not you’ve attended DFR before, if you are working in tech in LA, we’re having a party in your honor and I hope you will come.

Creating a consumer brand from the ground up has been one of the most challenging (and exciting) endeavors of my marketing career. Finally, the opportunity to practice what I preach, for the cobbler’s children to get some shoes, and so on.

No one said getting a food product to market was easy. Most of the food consultants we’ve met say it’s at minimum a $300K endeavor to get onto store shelves. Even then, we’ll be on the hook for the inventory until the time it crosses the scanner. It will take years, not months to get into market. We think the trouble is worth it…here’s why.

First, and most importantly, Fuegorita is a good product. For those who like crushed red pepper but find it’s never quite spicy enough, we’ve solved that problem! Our secret formula is the perfect blend of heat and flavor and can be used for cooking and on top of prepared foods. Furthermore, there’s currently there is no branded dry pepper product in a sea of hot sauce brands. If you want crushed red pepper at a restaurant what brand do you call for? Answer: Fuegorita!

For all intents and purposes, Fuegorita is still at the starting line. It’s only available online, but we have loyal customers and we’re making solid progress across the board. In lieu of doing farmers markets, and to further connect this project to my marketing endeavors, we have decided to promote at technology events around LA and have been featured at Youngry, 805 Startups and a pop-up shop at West Elm in Santa Monica. We have also employed the services of UCM Innovative PR, the student run agency at my alma mater, University of Central Missouri.

This year we received our registered trademark, secured our bar codes and have updated our packaging accordingly. We invested in new inventory, solidified our supply chain relationships and have a solid handle on the volume of orders that will be required for us to grow into larger co-packing relationships. We now have prototype bottles for pizza restaurants and are enlisting them in store promotions and feedback on how best to merchandise at pizza shops and other restaurants. Finally, we will be introducing our second product before year’s end, demonstrating to retailers that we’re not a one-trick pony — in fact, we have an entire product line planned to make the foods you love hotter.

All that’s left now is distribution and marketing — you know, the easy stuff! 😉

I’ve never been more excited about marketing or more focused on expanding the expertise and capabilities of Winders Consulting Group.

We are hyper-focused on our clients’ success and creating jobs for our network of talented marketing pros. In addition to ad tech, we’ve been fortunate to make an impact across other industries, including commercial vehicles, e-commerce, blockchain/ICO, health tech and our own consumer product, Fuegorita.

Communicating hustle will be the theme of tonight’s Youngry event where my start-up Pepper Bandits, will sponsor the pizza offered for a tasting of Fuegorita, our all-natural hot pepper blend. So, it seemed fitting to reflect on how that topic shows up in my work.

Do you work harder, spreading yourself thinly, double-booking and pushing yourself to the brink of exhaustion each day?

Or do you work smarter, remaining hyper-focused on performing only the most essential tasks required to move you closer to your clearly defined objective?

I’m no model citizen when it comes to working efficiently — so “do as I say, not as I do,” — but here are a few things I try to do with my hustle every day.

1) Driven (literally) – I don’t have a choice except to be driven — my success depends on it. So I fill my days accordingly, using every waking moment to attend to my many irons in the fire — even when that means driving all over Los Angeles to get ‘er done.

2) Decisive – I make decisions quickly because I know how critical that is to achieving my ultimate objective.

3) Dialogue – I believe conversation drives progress, so I make a point of having active conversations which drive my next set of actions.

4) Direct – I don’t have time to bullshit you and I certainly don’t have time for yours. I will always give you my honest assessment of where things stand, even if the truth hurts sometimes. I hope you’ll always do the same for me.

5) Discipline – I suck at discipline, but I work to improve my time management skills each day. From saying no, to being respectful of others’ time and managing my own, I work hard each day to keep an earnest focus on the prize.

6) Downtime – I know the importance of downtime and I look forward to yoga, basketball, guitar and family time because I know those are the things that are really most important and recharge my batteries so I can do more of the work I love.

These are the ways I communicate my hustle. How do you communicate yours?